My 13y/o brother and I are attempting to purchase a cheap used acoustic guitar for our sister for christmas. We usually get about $20-$25 per sibling to spend on christmas presents for each other so together we have about $50 to spend. I'm not looking for anything stellar at that price obviously but something that improves on the the 10 year old $100 acoustics held together by duct-tape that we have at school would be nice.
I'm a bassist primarily and can play a bit of electric guitar and very small amounts of acoustic so I know a bit about instruments in general but I thought I would be best to ask, what are the most common things I should be watching out for if I'm looking at these cheaper instruments?

Please don't recommend I try to get more money to put towards it because that's not possible. I have zero cash as does my brother, and since she got a digital piano last christmas our parents aren't going to be giving us much more than what we have.

Also if anyone knows if this might be an alright deal I'd appreciate it.

most cheap guitars have messed up tuners, so make sure they work right. something else would be to check the intonation - fret each string at every fret, play some chords. and look carefully for cracks - the ones that are hard to spot are thin ones that run along the grain so they look like grain unless you look carefully.

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Originally Posted by Skeet UK

I just looked in my Oxford English Dictionary and under "Acoustic Guitar", there was your Avatar and an email address!

I think better you look up for some sale or some coupons that can help you in buying a better one with a reasonable price. I guess i bought mine with a decent discount, though was not a great discount but I am happy to buy because I bought it with the least price in the market. I think you need to visit kmart and similar other stores, I got mine from QVC by using coupons and that helped me getting its discount here you can check. Still you need to read some articles before buying your guitar because what kind of guitar do you like and what is most suitable for you, this is necessary to know for you.

most cheap guitars have messed up tuners, so make sure they work right. something else would be to check the intonation - fret each string at every fret, play some chords. and look carefully for cracks - the ones that are hard to spot are thin ones that run along the grain so they look like grain unless you look carefully.

Do I need to check every fret? can't I just check it like I would on a bass or electric where I compare the 12th fret natural harmonic against the fretted note?
Also is it possible to adjust intonation on an acoustic or am I stuck with the intonation it comes with?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revens

I think better you look up for some sale or some coupons that can help you in buying a better one with a reasonable price. I guess i bought mine with a decent discount, though was not a great discount but I am happy to buy because I bought it with the least price in the market. I think you need to visit kmart and similar other stores, I got mine from QVC by using coupons and that helped me getting its discount here you can check. Still you need to read some articles before buying your guitar because what kind of guitar do you like and what is most suitable for you, this is necessary to know for you.

Can't tell if spambot or just didn't read the OP. I'm not buying new, so coupons are irrelevant. And I've never seen guitars at kmart. Also I've done some reading but I just wanted to know what too look out for on the cheap ones.